It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Putting the angel on top of the tree...

I have been so excited for Christmas this year! Like too excited. Our kids are at the perfect age to start talking about Santa Clause and the baby Jesus and all things wonderful!! I decided to put up our tree the week before Thanksgiving after we watched our first Christmas movie of the year and it was A BLAST! Seriously, we were all smiles watching our little ones and partaking in their joy and excitement!

We had the Christmas music going, the fireplace roaring on the TV (hehe), and one by one those tiny little hands put up all of the ornaments. Somehow we are missing some from last year which makes me so sad because one of them was of Evie's little hand print from her first Christmas. I'm hoping it's just in another box somewhere in that disaster of a closet under the stairs... If not, I might seriously cry!

I've officially decided that you haven't lived until you've spent the first few Christmases with your children! Everything is so new and exciting! Their eyes light up in wonder at the view of the tree and they are enthralled when you explain to them how the whole Santa thing works. Austin has been begging to make cookies for Santa every single day so I finally had to make a countdown to Christmas chain with him to help him understand how much longer until Christmas Eve! Evelyne was hilarious as she danced around the room with the tinsel and watched her brother in awe as he put the angel on top of the tree.... Seriously, that's a moment I wish I could bottle up and keep forever.

Our Christmas countdown chain! Both kids ate their weight in chocolate as we made it! I was surprised we had enough left over for the countdown!

Since then, the kids have undecorated and redecorated the tree multiple times and we have lost even more ornaments. It's a good thing most of them came from the dollar store from our first married Christmas together when we were too poor to afford the luxuries of fancy ornaments! Some day we will have nice things (sigh), but for now, we will enjoy the beauty in what we have. And we definitely have a lot! Just look at these pictures and tell me you're not slighty jealous ;).

We also put up our Christmas village that Josh's Grandma LaFeber made for him. I love this little village so much because it reminds me of my own Great Grandma Thayer and her beautiful village she would put up each year. I love watching Austin play with it and seeing the magic come alive in his eyes as he drives the little porcelain car down the snowy streets past the twinkling lights in the windows and the shoppers passing by.....

We also went with Grandma Porter to visit Santa! Josh was sick and couldn't go with us... I'll write more about that later. But for now we are focusing on all things Christmas! The line was long and Evie had a meltdown before we made it to the front, but we survived and nobody cried in Santa's lap this year! Eve just sat there in awe while Austin rambled off under his breath that he wanted a fire truck and he has been doing all sorts of chores to help his Mama out to work for it ;).

Nobody was smiling but nobody cried either which is a win in my book!

Sweet baby still fits in her beautiful Christmas dress from last year! She's such a petite little thing!

Austin playing with the toy guns while we waited in line. He is all boy I tell you!

After pictures, we went to visit the fish in the aquarium! It was such a fun filled day!

We've also indulged in this festive season with some homemade hot cocoa! Austin's Baby Boy Bakery kit came with all these fun recipes to try! The cinnamon white hot chocolate was better than anything I've ever had! Speaking of that, I think we will make some more tonight for family home evening!

I love my little helper so much! These memories in the kitchen are the ones I want to last forever!

Austin took his chocolate chip duty very seriously! Two for me, one for the pot ;)

Adding LOTS of whipped cream!

CHEERS!!!

YUMMY!!!

Then this past weekend we drove to Boulder City to have our little traditional Christmas with Grandma Helm at her house and to ride the Polar Express train! Grandma spoiled us as always, and the train was a big hit with Austin! Eve was a little too young and spent most of the time trying to escape, but somehow we kept it together so Austin could enjoy his special moment :). The train we rode was over 100 years old! I loved watching Austin peer out the window with his new binoculars Grandma gave him and commenting on all the things he saw. He even got to meet the conductor and wear his hat! Oh and did I mention that Santa and Mrs. Clause stopped by?! It was a cold day, but definitely worth it for all those fun little moments :).

Our fun little Christmas at Grandmas!

We love Great Grandma Helm SOOOO much! She is seriously the cutest little lady in the whole world!

Opening presents!

Austin got the big box!

Did I mention she spoils us?!

Grandma opening her gift from us :)

Talking and enjoying each others company

More presents!

Grandma has the funnest little singing decorations all around the house!

All aboard the Polar Express!

Meeting Santa Clause!

One happy little boy :)

Meeting the conductors!

The train gang.

After all that fun in Boulder City, we put the kids down for a nap and got ready for my Company Holiday Party at the Palms Hotel! The kids had a good time with the babysitter while Mom and Dad had a good time enjoying a nice meal with my coworkers!

Good Times!

Would you believe me if I told you we have all been horribly sick during all of this?! Josh was even hospitalized for 4 days just two weeks ago! Yes, I will write about that later. Basically, I have refused to let illness come between us and making all these fun memories with our kids! That sometimes comes at a cost (like meltdowns up the wazoo) but it is always worth it in the end! Our two babies are only going to be this young and innocent once and I don't want to miss out on anything! You only live once, right?! :)

Veteran's Day Parade in Overton & Mom/Dad's Staycation!

Happy Veteran's Day!!!

We drove out to my parent's house as is our Veteran's Day tradition because the small town parade and charm is THE BEST! The kids had such a great time running out into the streets to catch candy and we all had a great time watching them! The weather was perfect and the atmosphere was so comforting. I love this parade! I love the small town I grew up in! I loved that day!

Leaving the city for some small town fun!!! Can't wait!

Teaching our kids to stand for the flag and put our hands on our hearts. With all the craziness going on in our country lately, this was very important to me and I may or may not have cried....

Baby girl in her element!

Weeeeeee!!!!

We were a bit early so Josh and Briana walked down to McDonalds to get us all some breakfast! Yumm!

Having so much fun!

Somehow he lost his shoe; Grandma to the rescue!

The whole Fam-Damily (minus Briana who is taking the picture)!

Evie didn't like the loud helicopter that flew over to signal the start of the parade. Nana to the rescue!

Chasing after the candy!

We had to help Austin out a bit because there were so many other kids chasing after the candy and he isn't a push and shove kind of guy... I actually really love that about him!

After the parade we went to the town BBQ at the Overton Park and hung out for a while. While my Mom and I were chatting with an old high school friend of hers, Eve suddenly disappeared! It's a tiny town, so I wasn't too concerned, until I saw her sitting in the lap of some fireman I didn't know, happily munching on his bag of Cheetos! She had totally joined a new family without any reserves whatsoever! This is so typical Eve and it scares the heck out of me! Luckily they were super nice people and thought she was absolutely adorable, but what would I do if she did that with someone not so nice?! She is wayyy too social and loving for her own good and although we love her so much for that, we pray daily for her safety!

I couldn't believe it, so I HAD to take a picture! Can you believe that girl?!

BBQ picnic for the win!

Josh and I left the kiddos with the grandparents and then we got to go on a kid-free weekend staycation!! We drove back to Vegas and ate lunch at Viva Zapada's (my family's favorite Mexican restaunt). Next we got a couples massage which was Josh's first time EVER getting a professional massage! I keep begging him to get one with me but he never does so this time I surprised him and he had no other choice because I already paid for it! hehe! Needless to say, he loved it and is already making plans for another one! Yay!! After that, we checked into our hotel room at the Aliante Resort and spent the next two days in complete bliss! We ate whenever we felt like it, we slept as long as we wanted to, and we lounged by the pool without anyone telling us they were hungry or poopy! It was AMAZING!!!

Lounging by the pool. This is the life!

We actually got to read books! SCORE!!

Sleeping the day away after we ordered room service for breakfast :)

And more time spent by the pool. Take me back, I beg you!

Meanwhile, the kids were having a grand ol' time as well! My parents and Briana took them to the Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base and they loved it! Austin especially. He is such a boy and so mechanical. I was slightly jealous that I didn't get to enjoy it with them!

The gang. Look at the size of that plane!

And of course Eve was talking on the phone.... hehehe!

They even got to climb up into the cockpit! My mom got some professional photos taken and I am very tempted to steal them from her! But for now, this will have to do...

One happy little boy with his souvenir. Good job Grandma and Grandpa!

As you can see, it was quite the weekend for all of us full of fun and laughter! My two favorite things! :)

Happy Halloween!! 2016

Austin wanted to do a Star Wars theme this year! Cutest little Darth Vader and Yoda I ever did see! Austin: 3 years old, Eve: 18 months.

I don't know what it is about the week of Halloween but we ALWAYS have sick kids! It is so frustrating because each year we have all these fun plans and it never works out the way we thought. We missed out on a couple parties but still got to enjoy most of them thanks to my habit of pushing everyone to have fun no matter what condition we are all in..... it can be difficult but it always pays off!

After Josh and I both got off work that Friday, we got the kids dressed up and ready to hit up our Community Halloween Bash! It was up the street at the new park and we had a great time! It got crowded fast and the kids were sick and needed to go to bed so we didn't stay long, but got to enjoy some free treats, the pumpkin patch, and see all the fun characters before we left! It was a rather warm night (this summer felt like it would never end!!) so we dressed Eve as a baby fairy because her Yoda costume would have been wayyy too hot! Isn't she perfect?! And don't get me started on that crazy mini-Darth Vader....hehe!

She loved the cotton candy!

Basically we were having way too much fun! :)

kisses!

There were so many scary costumes! Josh wanted a picture with Chuckie but I had to put my foot down there! Austin was even scared of Jack Skeleton and pretended to be asleep the whole time hahaha! And yes, this is how we look after working all day... super cute, I know ;)

Love these guys to the moon and back!

The next day was our Ward Trunk or Treat! Yay! We had an outdoor chili cookout with lots of yummy treats and then had a blast walking around to all the scary cars! Our kids were so excited to see their friends and all the fun costumes so they didn't stop running around long enough to eat anything but candy which definitely gave Josh and I our exercise for the day! But it was a lot of fun and totally worth the effort!

After like 6 tries, we finally got a decent family picture! Score!

This is what the other 5 attempts looked like hahaha! It just cracks me up how Josh stood there like a posing soldier while I was chasing the kids around and trying to keep my sanity!

Austin LOVES his light saber! He is seriously obsessed with Star Wars! I didn't even know that was possible for a 3 year old!

Showing off the cape :). Those are actually his pajamas but I didn't feel like spending $30 on something he would only wear a couple times and those jammies are pretty dang cool! He didn't mind ;)

Evie and her best friend Blakely! Is this not the cutest picture EVER?!

YODA

The "Dark Lord" himself ;)

Then there was actual Halloween!!! Can you believe we actually missed three parties in between all this fun?! Yep, crazy Mom and her crazy love for parties..... Anyways, since we had sickies and Josh had to work that day, I decided to cancel our annual family Halloween party and just have it be us this year. It was actually really nice! I still made the homemade pumpkin bisque soup bowls and all, but this time the clean up was much easier! ;)

After Josh got home from work and we ate our super duper yummy soup, we got the kiddos ready and headed out for the official trick or treating adventure! Oh man, we got enough candy to last a lifetime! Seriously, we were out knocking on doors for a good two hours and we STILL didn't catch all the doors in the neighborhood! It was slow going with Evie. This was her first year of actual trick or treating and she insisted on walking everywhere and knocking on every single door that Austin knocked on! So typical of Evie. So by the second hour we had to call it a night because her poor little legs were exhausted and we were ALL tired of lugging around all that candy! I had brought an extra bag to dump it in when the kids' little buckets got full and we filled that one up too! :0

Once we got home, we let the kids dump out all the buckets and they had a great time decided which candy to eat! We also did FaceTime with Grandma/Grandpa Porter and Grandma/Grandpa Ronnenkamp to show them the cute outfits and all of our sweet treasures! None of us wanted the night to end, it was just that good!!!

Off to go Trick or Treating!

Baby's first official Trick or Treating adventure!